Blind
by Walking in Little Circles
Summary: Crowkit grew up with few friends and no sight. When his friend Barkpaw dissapears, Crowkit sets off to find him with Foxpaw, his only other friend. But he has no idea of the secret that awaits him. Will take a long time to update due to several issues. Sorry!
1. Chapter 1

**Thanks to Runing Hopes and Dreams for this chapter!**

There is a ball of white light in what I think is the sky. Around it is nothing but darkness. Under it, I see a cat, its fur glimmering brightly. I head towards the cat, but before I can get there, I wake up.

I sigh, wondering for the hundredth time what the dream could mean. I only have one memory of the sky. It was bright and huge. The only other thing I remember before I went blind was my mother's face. Now, all I have is her scent. I can no longer see.

I assume the white light is the moon. Barkpaw likes to visit me and describe things I can't see.

I often spend my time dreaming about the things I can't see. The moon. Silverpelt. Colors.

I can hear Foxpaw muttering to himself and scratching the wall. He's older than me, but he has the mind of a kit. One ofThunderClan's finest warriors tried to train him, but he was too much for him. The only place left for him was the elder's den. He was no use anywhere else.

As for me, our leader, Cloudstar, tried to get Oakleaf to take me on as an apprentice. She told him, apparently, that she wouldn't teach me because I would have trouble describing the herbs to my apprentice, and thus wouldn't be a good mentor. She knows of my memory. She knows that I remember everything I hear. The only reason she doesn't let me be an apprentice is because she hates me, as well as Foxpaw. He wouldn't be that bad of a medicine cat, but nobody had given him a chance since last time. Nobody ever gave him a chance at anything. I sigh and get up.

"Morning, Crowkit!" Foxpaw greets me.

"Foxpaw," I say with a sigh.

Foxpaw fails to notice anything odd about my voice, as usual. "Want to go exploring?" he asks.

I nod. "Sure."

Exploring for Foxpaw and I means wandering around ThunderClan's camp. I grabbed a piece of fresh kill and sniffed the air for the dawn patrol. Barkpaw was on it, and I was looking forward to seeing him. Aside from Foxpaw, Barkpaw was my only friend. We were all seen as outcasts.

I soon smelled them, but there was something wrong. All I could scent was fear, and I could hear yelling.

"Help!" calls a voice. I recognize it as Willowheart's. "Barkpaw's in trouble!"

I can smell Cloudstar's fear scent as he hurries over to Willowheart. "What happened?" he asks. I can hear the worry in his voice for his littermate. Willowheart's breaths come in fast, short gasps. "Oakleaf!" Cloudstar shouts.

Oakleaf comes hurrying out of her den. I can smell herbs. "Spiderstrike!" Cloudstar snaps. "Organize patrols!"

Spiderstrike makes a rumbling noise in his throat.

"Please," adds Cloudstar.

Spiderstrike turns Goldenpelt. "Take Frogsong and Amberstep along the RiverClan border."

"Of course," the she-cat says.

"Owlstrike, you can take Dapplepaw, Squirrelfur and Pebblestream to Fourtrees. Scout along the WindClan border, see if he crossed over."

"I'll do my best." she says.

"I'll lead a patrol with Wolfblaze and Leafbloom along the ShadowClan border. Dawnheart, Lightfeather and Blazestripe, stay here with the apprentices."

The cats group up and set off. "I want to go too!"mews Russetpaw.

"Sorry, Russetpaw, but we have to wait here," Dawnheart says.

"Dapplepaw got to go!" whined the she-cat.

"Dapplepaw's been an apprentice longer. You haven't been an apprentice for very long."

"You're not the only one staying here," Lightfeather points out."I'm staying too, along with Blazestripe."

"And Cloudstar," Blazestripe adds.

"He's here?" asks Russetpaw.

Lightfeather laughs. "How could you forget him?"

"May he never find out," says Dawnheart solemnly. The four of them laugh.

I couldn't take this waiting. I turn my head to Foxpaw's general direction. As if by unspoken agreement, Foxpaw asks, "Can Crowkit and I help too?"

Dawnheart laughs. "I think," she says between gasps of laughter, "You'd be better off here, Foxpaw. You aren't even trained to fight."

"Okay," mutters Foxpaw. In reality, he's actually a really good fighter. But Foxpaw never argues with those older than him.

"Why?" murmurs Foxpaw. "I'm smarter and older than Dapplepaw. Yet she gets to go."

"Well," I say as gently as possible, "You tell stories to yourself, like to paw the ground for no reason, interrupt cats when they're..."

"Hey Crowkit," Foxpaw interrupts me. "Let's go find Barkpaw."

I'm taken aback from his sudden declaration. "Now?" I ask.


	2. Chapter 2

**A shout-out to my beta, Coqui's song! **

"What?" I say, shocked. "You mean now?"

"Yeah!" says Foxpaw. "We could sneak out of camp when nobody's looking and find him and..."

"Now wait, Foxpaw," I interrupt. "We've barely given the patrol a chance to find him. Why, they could be coming back right now!"

"But..." murmurs Foxpaw, "what if they don't find him? What if..."

"Hush," I order, knowing Foxpaw would play 'What If?' all day if I didn't say something. "How's this, Foxpaw? If he doesn't come back by moonrise, then we can go and find him. Okay?"

Foxpaw argues, "But it's moonrise already, Crowkit! Let's go!"

I laugh. Foxpaw has tried to pull this trick on me many times, ever since he was old enough to talk. Whenever he wanted me to do something I said I would do at a certain time, like tell him a story. It never works these days, now that I have figured out a way to tell time. "Hailstorm hasn't come back yet," I say. "You know he hunts all day, and never comes back until moonrise."

Foxpaw sighs dejectedly, accepting defeat. "Worth a try," he says.

The rest of the day seems to last forever. I played toss-the-moss ball with Foxpaw, even though I got hit in the face every time I play because I couldn't see the moss. I also listened to Russetpaw complain about changing our bedding, and tried to get Blazestripe to take us hunting.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the patrols came back. I could tell by the lack of noise that they hadn't found him. Foxpaw, however, inquires anyway.

"Any sign of him, Leafbloom?" he asks.

"Well," she says, "we did smell him near the ShadowClan border. But we couldn't go much farther than that." She sighs. "Amberstep isn't going to like this, being his mentor..." she murmurs. "And neither will Willowheart..."

Foxpaw nudges me after Leafbloom's mutterings fade. "That's where we'll start our search," he says. "ShadowClan."

"Foxpaw..." I start to say before a voice cuts me off.

"Let all cats who can stand on four legs gather under the Highledge for a meeting!" calls Cloudstar.

I stay where I'm at. I can hear him just fine here.

Cloudstar clears his throat before he speaks. "Unfortunately, Barkpaw appears to have left the territory. I know you all are worried about him...but he should be left alone. If he wants to go to ShadowClan, then he should be allowed to do so."

"What?" yells Lightfeather. "We're not going to do anything?"

Cloudstar doesn't answer. I can hear the chatter of voices from around me. And then I hear Hailstorm's rumbling voice.

"Crowkit! Foxpaw! Want to hear a story?" asks Hailstorm.

"Story time! Yay!" says Foxpaw.

Hailstorm was the adopted father of Foxpaw and I, ever since the death of our parents in a greencough epidemic. He had lost his son and wife just before my birth in the same epidemic.

"Alright... I guess..." I hesitantly agree. Hailstorm's appearance means that moonrise is here. I had hoped that Barkpaw would have been found before then. Seeing as this isn't the case, a story from Hailstorm was not what I wanted at the moment.

Back in the elder's den, Hailstorm starts his story. "My uncle, the great Jayfeather, once saved the entire Clan from greencough. He searched the territory for catmint, facing punishment from his mentor..."

I close my eyes. I have heard the story often enough. Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Dovewing are Hailstorm's favorite story subjects because of his relation to them. When I was younger, I had always enjoyed the stories about Jayfeather, medicine cat of his entire Clan, part of the three who saved the forest. As I grew older, I realized that blind kits didn't always get the best of everything. In fact, they usually got the worst. My life was nothing but boredom. Nothing but a duty to all apprentices in the Clan.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I know, Foxpaw is shaking me awake.

"It's time," he says.


End file.
